Underdog Blake Bortles, UCF a perfect fit

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Six-year-old Blake Bortles plopped down on first base in tears.

Bortles had missed a catch, and his baseball team lost the game. It was devastating. He sat down on the bag in his green Athletics jersey and bawled. His father, Rob Bortles, walked out on the field.

"We don't do that, bud," Rob Bortles recalled telling his son.

"He never cried again," said Randy Bortles, Blake's uncle.

Blake Bortles will lead the underdog University of Central Florida football program in the biggest game in school history this week. Bortles and the Knights face off against the heavily favored Baylor Bears in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. The Bowl Championship Series game, one of the premier contests during college football's postseason, will air nationally on ESPN.

Ask UCF coach George O'Leary what has made Bortles uniquely equipped to handle the BCS challenge, and he will tell you the Knights never vote quarterbacks as captains. The position comes with an inherent responsibility to lead, and Bortles has proved more than capable of filling the role.

"He's never too high, he's never too low and he keeps his poise," O'Leary said.

In the huddle before a crucial fourth-quarter drive at Louisville on Oct. 18, a sea of red-clad Cardinals fans willed the Knights to fail.

Bortles looked around at his teammates and smiled. He asked: Isn't this what we dreamed about?

Less than two minutes to play, national TV, a chance to win the game?

And then he drove the team down the field for a game-winning score. It was an upset few outside of Orlando predicted and a pivotal victory on the Knights' historic journey to their first BCS game appearance.

On the sideline after throwing an interception six weeks later against USF, with precious time ticking away and the rival Bulls threatening to crush the Knights' dream season, it was the same Bortles. He emitted confidence. His teammates said they never doubted him. Bortles' soaring throw dropped perfectly into the hands of wide receiver Breshad Perriman to deliver that win, too.

It is Bortles' personality on the field and off of it. He calmly hums along, forever marked by an early lesson on a baseball diamond.

"Certain incidents repeat themselves throughout your lifetime," Bortles said. "You can handle them differently or the same. If I did something one way when I was 6 years old, every time it's happened since then, I've handled it the way they taught me: the right way."

A unique bond

They are very much the perfect fit.

A quarterback nobody wanted now touted as one of the best passers in the country. A program cast aside now preparing to play on one of college football's biggest stages.

The coveted BCS game invitation is the greatest accomplishment in the history of the UCF football program.

The Knights, who fielded their first team in 1979, have made the quickest journey from launch of a program to a BCS game in NCAA history.

The feat was largely made possible because of Bortles' play under center.

Once an unknown high-school quarterback, Bortles has developed into a potential first-round NFL draft pick.

Even the junior's toughest critics admit he has been clutch under pressure, encompassing the qualities tagged to the very best playmakers. He has made the right decisions during key moments. He has stepped in to bruising hits and bowled over defenders.

Long before he was praised regularly on ESPN, Bortles was eager to prove he was a college-football quarterback. All he needed was an opportunity to prove it.

Bortles can remember them all, the high-school quarterbacks his age rated above him by scouting services. He can tell you how many have never started at quarterback at the college level. He recalls the tournaments they attended together and the passing camps where he out-threw them.

"There's probably five or six kids on that list in front of me that haven't even played," Bortles said. "There's not a lot of good kids on that list, but for some reason I wasn't good enough."

On one recruiting trip to Arkansas, Bortles asked his mother to wait in the car while he went to register. Bortles didn't want to just look the part of quarterback, he wanted to project it, too.

"I'm going in here to try to convince these coaches that I can lead their football team. I can't walk in with my mom," Suzy Bortles recalled her son's explaining before setting off on his own.

However he could prove he belonged, Bortles would try to do it. Rob Bortles, the quarterback's father, recalled one camp where his son made sure he ran every drill next to Heaps, the top-rated signal caller in the country.